I have always heard that red, blue and green lights on vehicles in Louisiana are reserved for emergency vehicles only.

Lately, I have seen numerous Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development vehicles with flashing red lights on the top. I also saw trucks working on I-10 near Iowa with flashing green lights.

This is confusing to the public if these colors are only supposed to be on emergency vehicles. Has the law changed?

No.

State law — R.S. 32:318 — reserves flashing blue rooftop lights for law enforcement vehicles, but it allows “all publicly owned fire trucks with fire apparatuses and publicly owned ambulances” to use blue lights mounted at the rear of the vehicles.

Additionally, the statute mandates that “every authorized emergency vehicle” be equipped with flashing red lights or — in the case of “organized fire companies” — a dome-encased “alternating red and white light on the roof.”

State law defines “authorized emergency vehicles” in part as fire department vehicles; vehicles, including bicycles, belonging to police forces; volunteer firefighters’ personal vehicles; state-certified ambulances; and “emergency vehicles of municipal departments or public service corporations as are designated or authorized by the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development or by the chief of police of any incorporated municipality.”

The law also allows members of the Fort Polk hospital’s emergency team — with written state permission — to equip their privately owned vehicles with red lights.

Other provisions on emergency-type lights:

R.S. 32:327(B): “No person shall drive or move any vehicular equipment upon any highway of this state with any lamp or device thereon displaying a red or green light visible from directly in front of the center thereof. This section shall not apply to any vehicle upon which a red or green light visible from the front is expressly authorized or required by this Chapter or by regulation of the department.”

R.S. 32:327(C): “Flashing lights are prohibited except on authorized emergency vehicles, school buses, or on any vehicle as a means of indicating a right or left turn, or the presence of a vehicular traffic hazard requiring unusual care in approaching, overtaking or passing.”

R.S. 32:327(D): “No person shall sell a dashboard, hood, vehicle front grill, or vehicle roof mounted emergency light that emits a blue or red glow, or that emits a glow in any combination of the colors red, white, and blue, to any person who is not a peace officer, a firefighter, or a person employed in the performance of emergency or public utility services. No person shall possess such an emergency light except peace officers, firefighters, public utility, and emergency personnel.”

As for the DOTD vehicles the reader reported seeing, Deidra Druilhet, a department spokeswoman, said they “were probably contractor vehicles and not DOTD vehicles.”

Online: www.legis.la.gov.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com

(mgnonline.com)